


wreath of lovers

by greywardenblue



Series: divide, not take away [1]
Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2021-01-06 00:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21217628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue
Summary: In which Toby finds out about the complicated web of relationships her kids are involved in. (Hint: it's called a polycule.)





	wreath of lovers

“Get back here, you little shit!”

Toby and Gillian looked up at the same time and turned towards the house. An Abyssinian cat appeared running, and he had something in his mouth. Raj climbed on the roof easily with his four legs, out of reach of Quentin by the time the squire rounded the corner.

“Come down! You’re supposed to share!”

Toby and Gillian looked at each other, then Gillian grinned and Toby sighed. Gillian stood up first, rushing closer to enter the conversation, and Toby followed. Quentin was now trying to climb the roof and grab Raj’s leg to drag him down by force. Toby would have told him off for visibly shifting shapes outside, but the backyard was warded enough that the neighbours wouldn’t be able to see or hear anything.

Dean walked around the house at a comfortable pace, seemingly not affected by the argument. He was carrying two huge unicorn-shaped ice creams, and he handed one of them to Gillian with a smile.

“For you, my lady.”

Gillian chuckled. “Thanks!”

Toby hissed. “ _Gillian! _”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on! It’s just Dean!”

“You need to get in the habit. We’ve talked about this.”

Gillian sighed theatrically, then turned to Dean. “I eternally appreciate this wonderful gift of yours, Count Lorden. Which is, for some reason, not the same as saying thank you. Do I curtsy? Hey, Mom, how do I curtsy?”

Toby shrugged, her eyes on the other two boys and their all-out war over a pack of Oreos. “Don’t ask me, I’ve never been good at it. Hey! You two!” Quentin and Raj froze and looked at her. “Raj, share those with Quentin. Also, me.”

“Says who?”

“Says your King’s consort. Pay up.”

Raj rolled his eyes and threw a few Oreos at Toby, who caught them and handed half of them to Quentin.

“I’ll be King soon, you know. What are you going to say then?” Raj asked, dangling his feet from the edge of the roof.

Toby raised an eyebrow and looked at Quentin, who shrugged. “Raj Statford-Daye, if you think being a King will stop me from ordering you around, then you haven’t been paying attention to anything around here for years.” She bit an Oreo in half. “Besides, I’ll still have the stepmother card to play.”

Quentin frowned. “Well, I’m pulling the boyfriend card, and I want more Oreos. I paid for that pack!” He held up his open palm expectantly.

“Is that really his name?” Gillian asked. “Like, he’s actually called Daye?”

“Funny story,” Toby said.

“Pretty hilarious, I’d say,” Quentin said.

“It started when Toby and Tybalt were still in denial,” Raj said.

Gillian frowned at them. “Well, okay! One of you has to tell me now!”

Raj reached forward to drop a single biscuit in Quentin’s open hand, who took it eagerly, but neither of them looked like they were going to begin the story.

“This was not long after I met Dean and his parents,” Toby said finally. “In the year after Connor got elfshot. I was going to tell Raj off for drinking all the milk from the fridge, and I told him he needed a last name so I could shout his full name dramatically when I’m mad at him.”

“That’s _such _a Mom thing to do,” Gillian said.

Toby blushed a little. “So… I half-heartedly told him he can have mine, I already gave it to May anyway. Then Tybalt came in and said he already has a human last name, so Raj can just use that one.”

“I picked both,” Raj said from the roof. “Which sent Toby into a blushing-stuttering attack. She had a lot of those back then.”

Toby tried to swat at Raj’s legs, but he pulled them up. Quentin has abandoned trying to drag the cat down, and instead started pressuring Dean into sharing his ice cream. Toby looked at them with a frown, a thought forming in her mind.

“So what is happening here?” she asked, gesturing vaguely towards Quentin, Dean and Gillian standing next to each other.

They stared back at her.

“What?” Gillian asked.

“You know… here.” She repeated the gesture, widening it so it included Raj, which was a little difficult given that he was both behind and above her.

Dean and Quentin both started turning the color of fresh tomato, while Raj looked entirely unimpressed. The little jerk.

Gillian rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mom, it’s not _that _complicated,” she said. “I’m dating Dean and Chelsea, and Dean is also dating Quentin, and Quentin is also dating Raj, and Raj and Chelsea sort of have a thing but it’s not official so we don’t really talk about it.”

Raj made a disgusted noise, then crumpled the empty package into a ball and threw it at Gillian’s head. Toby, who only knew about one third of that information, tried very hard to keep up. “Basically, it’s a circle?” she asked.

Gillian nodded, smoothing her hair after dodging the missile. “Basically, it’s a circle.”

Toby squinted at the boys. “Do any of your parents know about this?”

“My parents really like Gillian,” Dean said weakly. “But we didn’t really… I mean, we haven’t talked about it.”

There was an awkward silence where Toby could have said something about their respective positions and responsibilities and what that might mean for the future of their relationships. She chose not to. They were probably all aware of that and didn’t want to hear somebody else repeat them.

“Well, that’s…” she hesitated, unsure how to go on. “Good. I mean... “ She made another vague gesture with her hand. “You’re all good kids, and I like you. So I guess you all chose pretty well.”

The nervous expressions slowly melted into relieved smiles, and Toby wondered if Tybalt or May knew about this. 

“I’ll just… be inside if you need me,” she said finally, and walked away to find out. She could still hear the muffled voices from outside, and she smiled to herself. Even if she didn’t quite understand, this seemed like a good thing that made her kids happy. That was enough.


End file.
